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What happened on Friday: why we’re not going to be able to buy our home

Our bad luck has continued and words have betrayed me ever since the latest news in the house saga came in on Friday morning. Since the bad news came in, I have not been able to stop crying, teary fits of hysteria have become common place and I feel like a butterfly floating around with no-where to go. I will be 38 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow. I don’t think I have ever been at this level of desperation and I am clutching at the ropes right now.

Friday started pretty well, a gorgeous sunny morning with record breaking temperatures. I’d planned to spend the day relaxing on the terrace, soaking up some rays and reading the baby books I’d purchased. Fairly early on though, I could see that Mr Piglet was agitated and was trying to come to terms with something. He had one of those looks on his face and was flitting around, trying to occupy himself, as if he wanted to tell me something but couldn’t bring himself to do it. After nearly 12 years together I can pretty much read him like a book so I suggested that he tell me whatever he needed to say and I promised I wouldn’t hit him.

As it turned out, I could have killed someone but he wasn’t to be the one and I am still working out who it will have to be today. Our notaire had called to advise us that the purchase of the property wouldn’t be able to complete on the 18th April after all. The SAFER had utilized their right of pre-emption on the land and property and had forcefully stopped the sale and purchase going through!

What on earth is this all about you’re probably wondering? Well, the SAFER is a French government, supposedly non-profit organization whose job it is to preserve the French countryside and look out for agricultures interests. As part of its role, it can stop a sale going through if there is someone with an agricultural interest in the property or land that is being sold.

Each time a property with agricultural land is being sold the SAFER must be notified. You can pay (or as Fly from “French Leave” put it “bribe”) the SAFER to treat your request quicker than normal as we did by writing a cheque (for a couple of hundred Euros BTW) and supposedly get a quicker response, or you can wait two months for them to come back to you and find out whether or not they want to buy instead.

For most property purchase this is just a formality, a piece of paper that you have to obtain, just like obtaining the piece of paper from the Town Hall regarding their right to pre-empt. Never in a million years did anyone expect the SAFER to utilize their right and to put an end to the sale!

As the notaire tried to explain to a devastated Mr Piglet, the SAFER had (at the very, very last minute) notified the vendors notaire that they would be putting a stop to the sale as they had a “paysan” (farmer) who wanted to buy. The notaire explained to Mr Piglet that they could impose a lower sales price on the vendors, forcefully stopping the sale of the property to us and if the vendors weren’t in agreement then the case would have to be presented to the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) and it would be up to them to decide. Being familiar with the French legal system (I have had a business court case that has been going on for nearly five years now), this spelt things out pretty clear to us: we were in the s**t!

The land in question

According to our notaire there is a meeting next week between the SAFER and the vendors and we will try and attend also with legal representation as we are sure that there is something fishy going on:

1. the property we’re buying has only 1.4 hectares of land (not all of which is considered agricultural) so we cannot see what interest the property truly represents to a farmer or how the land needs to be preserved

2. the immediate surrounding land are all residential

3. the adjacent residential buildings for the most part are all new builds (the small hamlet contains properties from the same era as the farmhouse) but the properties adjacent to the land are all new. This leads one to believe that someone may have their eye on the land for building purposes

4. there was some suspicion back in March as the Town Hall utilized their right to pre-empt the purchase but then quickly withdrew it when it was queried by the vendors notary. No-one knows the exact reason they gave (as they didn’t give one!) which is fishy as now it’s been pre-empted again but by the SAFER! Could this be linked to point 3?

Writing this has been quite therapeutic as the facts are in black and white – we are stuffed unless we can prove one way or another that something dodgy is going on and try and fight it. Of course if everything is legitimate then we must also have a plan b so we have two things to work on:

1. Find out when the SAFER meeting is and seek legal representation (a lawyer) urgently. I have told Mr Piglet that I will look after this as I need to have some role in what is going on to make me feel as if I am doing something rather than just sitting back and accepting the crap that is being thrown at me.

2. Find somewhere to live! Little Miss Piglet is due to arrive and we cannot continue living with my in-laws, 2 hours from our friends in Lyon! We need to find alternative accommodation and quickly! Mr Piglet is going to start hunting this week for a rental property that can accommodate us, our furniture and the baby as soon as she arrives. Just what we needed!

So there you have it! The latest saga in our quest to purchase a property in the French countryside and after months and months trying, we’re still not any closer to realizing our dream. Rather off putting isn’t it? Mafia and Barons spring to mind, maybe I’ll write a book when this is all over, who knows…

PS. Buying French property isn’t usually this hard – our first property purchase was easy and took just two months.
PPS. Find out more about the SAFER here

OMG, this is terrible. What a saga you’ve had to endure. The whole thing gives me the willys and I am so glad we are renting with the Embassy as a buffer between us and our landlords. Good luck with lawyering up, and I will have my fingers crossed for you finding the perfect place for bub’s imminent arrival. I can only think that after all this trouble the universe must have a lovely surprise in store for you somewhere…

Thanks Kirsty for your support, I do so hope you’re right that we’ll soon discover THE perfect place… I have no energy left for househunting (have been at it since November) so will be leaving to Mr. You’re lucky having a buffer in the middle, but I will say it’s not normally this hard, promise!

I wonder if it’s something to do with the present occupiers (as you had mentioned previously that they were unwilling to move out and were being awkward about a moving date). Your lawyer may be able to sniff this out, if this is the case

I really hope everything falls into place for you – and hopefully, you can at least find a suitable rental in time for the baby’s arrival

That’s what we initially thought but it’s not possible as on Friday (before all this happened) we’d called France Telecom about setting up our new line and internet and they told us that the old owners had cancelled their line as of the day before so we could take that over if we wished… so they’ve definitely moved out or in process of doing so…

I doubt we’ll find a rental in time for the baby’s arrival but we’ll get a gite to get us started. Then we’ll have to renegotiate with the removal people and get a new slot for our move in, we have so much furniture it’s going to be a struggle to find a rental big enough😦

Oh no, this is dreadful and something you definitely don’t need! could it have something to do with the previous people living there not wanting to move out? I think you mentioned something about this in a previous post? It does seem very suspicious and a farmer is not going to be able to do much with that little piece of land. Perhaps you could suggest to lease it to him so he can graze his cows? or whatever he was going to do with it…. if he even exists!!

Unfortunately it doesn’t look as if it is the owners playing silly buggers… we found out that they cancelled all their phone lines etc already.

We’re going to try and attend the meeting and find out what’s going on, hopefully with a good lawyer we’ll be able to (quickly) get to the bottom of it and propose a solution if there’s a reasonable solution to be had.

At the same time we don’t want to be caught up with the mafia land barons when we come to sell in the future… it has scared the hell out of us!

Long time no see, Sharon and I am soo sorry you have been through so much lately, especially so close to giving birth . Anyway , I would just leave this place and start looking for another house – it is too much trouble to handle this thing and in my opinion it is bad omen to start like this. I am not superstitious but every time in my life I had to struggle that much for something it proved later on it was not worthy. You have only one life – this one. Every day is important and the quality of every day living is important. I have discovered that fighting that much to acomplish something/anything it is just not worthy. When I was younger I was all about fighting and working and getting things done but really, the truth is only very few things in life are worthy to push that much. Sometimes we have better alternatives we just don’t see becasue we are focussing on alternatives not very practical …. You asked some time ago why all these things were happening. Maybe this house is not the right choice. Maybe you just have to stop a bit and re-evaluate things,directions,choices,houses,people. I might be wrong, of course. You’ll see. Meanwhile , I hope both you and Miss Piglet are in perfect shape .I wish you all the best !

Oh my gosh! I want to scream for you and tears have trickeld down my face. I totally understand being pregnant myself one wants ones own place. I hope you guys can prove something fishy is going on. Otherwise, I hope you guys can find a place to live rather quickly. Maybe showing your pregant body at the hearing will help. Don’t they have any compassion. These things should be worked out before a property even goes on the market.

I agree that these things should be sorted BEFORE the property is on the market but no-one else here seems to share my point of view… there is some logic to sorting this type of thing out prior whilst it just between the owners and the SAFER as opposed until waiting for third parties like ourselves to be involved. Only that would be too easy and much less fun wouldn’t it?

I am so sorry that this has happened..just when you thought you could finally relax….well, Mdlle. Piglette is going to inherit some battling genes, isn’t she!

Like you, I smell a rat and at first thought of the reluctant vendors….but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

One thought occurs to me.
You had an earlier handover date, I seem to recall.
By that date…or by the signature of the contract agreeing that date, the right of pre emption of SAFER should have been extinguished.
Once extinguished, I find it hard to see how it has suddenly come back to life, imminence of Easter notwithstanding.
How can a contract have been signed without checking this basic detail…the time scale of SAFER’s right of pre emption?

Check this with your notaire and if he is at all evasive then give him the third degree in case he is mixed up in this too….or just totally incompetent.

And if it’s any comfort, buying our last house in France took eighteen months and uncovered a great deal of skulduggery.

Hi Fly, thanks for the advice as always. I was wondering the same things but didn’t know if it was just me or not… We’ve spoken to our notaire this am and cannot get answers to our questions as it is the vendors notaire… who is closed today! Surprise!

We’ve had to cancel the removal men and everything, thankfully they’ve been very kind and not charged us anything extra, they had moved customers around to fit us in and our stuff is taking up a large part of their storage facility with no date for when we’ll be vacating.

Thanks Ayak, my life is certainly not boring that’s for sure! I’m just sad that all of this is happening, I never imagined that things would turn out this way after waiting until later on to have children.

I just read your post to D and he is shaking his head. At first, he said “they can just forget about that property” (when I read about the SAFER) but…

I always try to find something positive while in the midst of challenges such as this. D said that it serves the vendors right (if SAFER imposes a lower sale price on the property). While it doesn’t help your situation I feel a certain karmic force at work here.

D and I agree, however, that you and Mr Piglet are nice people and that this is just a blip. We can’t always see the good and happy ending while dealing with a bad situation. So, I’m hoping for a quick and positive resolution. Hey, you may find something better. (I’m just sayin’ as it can happen.)

Piglet, I am so disgusted for you! This is horrible. You know, Victor was born right about this point in my pregnancy so please try not to get too worked up or stressed out (so easy to say, right?) I can’t believe the horrible luck you’ve had but I hope it’ll truly start improving. I’m crossing my fingers for you that something will finally go your way. Bisous!

Thanks Amber! Everytime I have a crying fit I stop myself worried that I’ll pop her out! It’s a good way of keeping me calm! I don’t want her to be born until I know where I’ll be living so I keep pleading with her to stay put🙂

Since it is right up above my comment, I have read Tanya’s and could not agree more with her. I hope this is just a blip. Also, it is true that many times there are things we cannot foresee, and that perhaps looking back from some point in the future, this happening might make sense. Not saying it always works out that way, but I know in my own life when life has taken a twist or turn that seemed devastating, many times I have been able to look back and see it has been for a good reason, or at least been able to see how things worked out for the best.

I’m glad it helped to write things out. I hope that Mr Piglet can find you and baby a nice home in which to get a good start together as a family of three.

Thanks Karin. Let’s hope that they’ll be some logic that will become apparent and one day I’ll be able to tell Little Miss Piglet all about how her Mummy and Daddy were homeless when she was born…

What is most upsetting for me is that we were in a fantastic place just two months ago and I keep thinking that we wrong to leave so quickly, we should have fought to delay the completion date. Hindsight however is not helpful in this case.

I can’t believe you are having to go through all this hassle.. it is crazy! I really feel for you and really want to shout at people for you, it has been a nighmare for you and I really hope that you get it sorted. I hope that when you look back at this you will realise and thank goodness you didn’t move there! For example, they build a road through the land or I don’t know something that will then make you happy you didn’t move in there.. Big hugs and good luck.
xxx

I am just sick for you ! I thought for sure that nothing else could happen. My husband has always said, ” Things always happen for a reason “… most times it does not make me feel better… until later when something happens and I see that I am glad that the Thing happened !
I really hope you get all of your money back plus something and that you unexpectedly turn a corner one day and see the house that you want that is for sale and everything happens easily, the way it should .. in the Real World… which is getting harder and harder to find🙂
much love and good luck and besos for you and the Mr and little miss piglet..

I wish someone could come and wave a magic wand for me and take all of this away, I really, really do. I’m sure things do happen for a reason, everything in the past seems to be like that when I’ve looked back so I sure hope I get to say the same here…

Oh Piglet family – what a horrible situation for you all to be in. I reread your blog twice to be sure that I understood – you are in a lot of p**p.
The positive side: when you do finally settle into your little abode, you will all have so many things for which to be thankful.
Yes! write a book – trust me, it is good and important therapy.
We’re here to listen and cheer you on (o:
take care of yourself and baby piglet! first things first!!